As is known, machines for preparing beverages such as coffee, tea, cappuccino and the like are used both in workplaces and in households and are increasingly widespread owing to the fact that the prepared beverages have a quality which usually is equal to what can be obtained in a bar.
The use of so-called capsules, i.e., specific sealed containers designed to be inserted in an infusion assembly which allows to release the contents of the capsule and thus prepare the beverage for dispensing to the user, with subsequent disposal of the capsule, is also increasingly widespread.
The diffusion of capsules is due to the fact that the user has at his disposal an extremely simple, effective and quick means for preparing the beverage, without having to dose ingredients and possibly without dirtying the surrounding environment.
Moreover, the use of capsules simplifies considerably the use of automatic machines for preparing beverages in general, since the user is not required, for example in the case of coffee, to fill a dosage unit with the required amount of coffee, to connect the dosage unit to the machine and then wait for the coffee to be dispensed. In the case of capsules, the user simply has to insert the capsule as it is into an appropriate cavity, operate the closure lever and wait for the machine to dispense the beverage for which the capsule has been prepared.
Many automatic and semiautomatic assemblies are available commercially and are designed to use a capsule for dispensing beverages. There are assemblies in which the capsule is inserted from above, from the front, laterally or by means of a traditional method which uses a filter supporting arm, as occurs for conventional machines to be used in bars.
However, increasing demand is oriented toward infusion assemblies which, at the end of the dispensing process, are capable of expelling the used capsule, relieving the user from the inconvenience of getting dirty or of dirtying the environment that surrounds the machine and of having to handle the used capsule.
Capsules are commercially available which are composed of two or more parts made of thermoplastic material, aluminum or other materials in order to ensure good preservation of the product.
In conventional automatic and semiautomatic infusion assemblies, the capsule, while the beverage is being dispensed, is for example surrounded by two movable jaws, which contain it, and when the new capsule is introduced it pushes and expels the preceding one.
The system described above is simple and clean, but the used capsule (which is still full of beverage preparation, for example coffee) remains hot in the infusion chamber until the machine is used again by introducing the next capsule.
Another known type of infusion assembly provides a horizontal assembly with an opening for inserting the capsule, and positioning occurs by means of two fixed guides, in which there is an abutment beyond which the aluminum rim of the capsule can move, the capsule being moved into the dispensing position by way of the backward thrust of the infusion chamber, which in turn is actuated by the lever. When the lever is opened, the chamber retracts and the rim of the capsule strikes the fixed guide, and thus the capsule is released and falls spontaneously.
There are also infusion assemblies in which the arms that hold the capsule are external, with problems as regards space occupation. Finally, there are also infusion assemblies in which the dispensing assembly is movable and the arms that hold the capsule are instead fixed.